Gascoyne questions Group Lotus’ F1 strategy

Mike Gascoyne has questioned Group Lotus’ apparent intention to enter formula one next year in collaboration with the Renault team.

Gascoyne is the technical boss at the team currently known as Lotus Racing, but the official naming license has been revoked by Group Lotus for 2011 and beyond.

This year’s Lotus Racing cars have also run with branding of the Group Lotus owner Proton, but Gascoyne’s boss Tony Fernandes is reportedly dismayed the sports car maker did not embrace the opportunity to tie up with his team.

And Gascoyne is now confused about the reports linking Group Lotus with a three-year EUR 60 million title sponsorship of Renault F1.

“If they want to advertise their road cars, why spend so much money on it?” the Briton is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“With us, they could do it free of charge.”

The German report said Group Lotus is currently running at a loss, meaning it is essentially subsidised by Malaysian tax-payers due to its Proton ownership.